ACIDALIA RUBRICATA. 87 
The larvee were hatched on the 6th of August, and 
chose for their food Polygonum aviculare, Lotus corn- 
culatus, Medicago lupulina, and Trifolium minus. 
M. Carl Plotz, whose drawings of Geometre and 
their larvee are referred to by Mr. Crewe in the 
Entomologist’s Annual for 1865, had figured A. 
rubricata as feeding on Thymus serpyllum, but I 
could not discover that my larve showed any liking 
for that plant. They continued feeding till some 
time in October, and had attained a length of rather 
more than a third of an inch before hybernation. 
About this time I discovered amongst them a very 
tiny larva of Boarmia rhomboidaria, which I believe 
must have been produced from an egg laid upon one 
of the food-plants before it had been potted for the 
use of A. rubricata. I fancy it must have been on the 
Lotus corniculatus; but whether this intruder in any 
way injured his fellow-prisoners I cannot tell (if he 
did, he met with a comical punishment afterwards; a 
larva of Zygena trifolia took possession of him as he 
was stretched out stiff between two stems of the 
trefoil, and actually spun its cocoon upon his back !) ; 
however, during the latter part of October and the 
month of November, from some cause or other, I lost 
six out of nine larvee which I had hoped to rear. The 
remaining three I nursed very carefully, on fine days 
exposing them in their glass cylinder to the sun and 
air, and on stormy days and every night putting them 
under shelter. They began to feed again some time 
in March, from that time showing a decided prefer- 
ence for Polygonum aviculare. They changed skin for 
the last time about the end of April, and spun up 
during the latter part of May and beginning of June., 
On the 29th of June a very perfect specimen emerged 
of the ‘‘ bright purple” variety of the moth, puzzling 
me until I learned that the ‘‘dull brownish-red ”’ of 
the Manual is not the constant uniform of A. rubri- 
cata. J can compare the colour of this specimen to 
nothing so well as to the beautiful tint on the hind 
